Panama Beats Bolivia With Late Goal at Copa América

The Colombia captain James Rodríguez will miss Tuesday’s match against Paraguay with a shoulder injury he sustained in a 2-0 win over the United States.CreditEzra Shaw/Getty Images

By Agence France-Presse

June 6, 2016

Blas Pérez scored two goals Monday, including an 87th-minute winner, to give Panama a 2-1 victory over Bolivia in a Copa América Centenario Group D opener at rainy Orlando, Fla.

The 35-year-old Pérez, who plays for M.L.S.’s Vancouver Whitecaps, opened the scoring in the 11th minute before Bolivia’s Juan Arce evened the game in the 54th minute.

Panama started the game with real urgency. Gabriel Torres followed his fiercely hit shot in the third minute with a dipping free kick from 30 yards out, and Bolivia goalkeeper Carlos Lampe did well to tip it over the net. Pérez then swung a beautiful cross-field pass into the path of Armando Cooper, but Cooper’s volley was high and wide.

COLOMBIA STAR SIDELINED Colombia’s captain, James Rodríguez, will miss Tuesday’s match against Paraguay because of a shoulder injury, the Colombian soccer federation said.

Rodríguez, who fell awkwardly and dislocated his shoulder during Colombia’s 2-0 win over the United States on Friday, joins Argentina’s Lionel Messi and Uruguay’s Luis Suárez as heavily promoted stars who will miss games at the Copa with injury. His federation said he could return for Colombia’s final group-stage match, against Costa Rica in Houston on Saturday.

(REUTERS)

Klinsmann Likes Merger Idea United States Coach Jurgen Klinsmann was optimistic about an ESPN Deportes report that Concacaf, the regional soccer federation for North and Central America and the Caribbean, would merge its continental championship with the one held by its South American counterpart, Conmebol.

The theoretical merger would combine Concacaf’s Gold Cup competition with the South American championship, Copa América, into a single tournament played every four years in the United States.

“It would be huge for our region, to play in the Copa América in the format it is now,” Klinsmann said. “Speaking on behalf of Mexico and Costa Rica as well, it would be huge to compete with these top nations.”

The Copa América is the world’s oldest international tournament, but this is the first time it is being played outside South America.

JAMIE TRECKER

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page B15 of the New York edition with the headline: A Goal in the Final Minutes Pushes Panama Past Bolivia. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe